When I first started playing this game, I was enthralled... But my issues with it are much stronger than my love for it. Let's go on..

SPOILER WARNING. 

1. The tone changes.

The tone changes are too jarring, and make for an uneven experience. I can tell some are done on purpose, but a lot seem to come from clumsy writing. I did not like how, when getting closer to Crowe, MC is more intellectual, but when we are with Sol, we behave in an incredibly silly manner (We literally sit on a stranger's lap..)

That doesn't spare Crowe from badly written moments either : 

him picking us up in the rain. I understand it is written to make us believe something horrible is coming, but there is no logical reason why he would pick us up and run away THEN go get the kitten. It's illogical and stupid.

This game, despite targetting an adult audience, feels like it would be most appealing to younger teens.

Overall though, all my gripes with the game come back to one character:

2. SOL.

The bad ending shows both Sol and MC at their best: I love that we try to strangle him, how viscerally violent we get. 

But that's it. 

There is a big dissonance when it comes to Sol : his dates feel like Y/N Fanfictions when they shouldn't, especially when they end with us drugged in our bed. I find the handling of his character clumsy and honestly dangerous.

 He is the favorite, the game is designed around him. 

In TKATB, the most desirable option is the man who hurt us the most, and it feels like it was made to indulge in that kind of desire rather than have a complex conversation around a complex situation. 

I don't like the unnecessary detail of him getting a boner while cuddling with us after drugging us. I don't mind that in a scenario where there is no doubt the author is denouncing it, but here, it doesn't feel like they are.

The manipulation isn't a problem if the atmosphere of the story feels dark, but when most illustrations portray him as a blushing, flustered mess, it doesn't match and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. 

I could not bring myself to finish the game and get every single Sol illustration, just because of how 'adorable' they are. 

I understand that it's hard to portray a yandere in a way that is deep and makes it clear it's not romanticized, but here the limit is more than blurred. 

3. Sexual assault.

Now we get to my biggest issue with the game, it's treatment of sexual themes :

from the assault by the strangers, which is completely unrealistic ((and codes the MC as female, as in fiction, this specific kind of scenario only happens to women)), to Sol getting aroused when we are asleep, to the incomplete trigger warnings, The portrayal of sexual assault in this game is incomplete and IN MY OPINION, dangerous. 

The SA scene by the strangers was very jarring and stereotypical, which I find especially bad when the parallel scene (murder in the bathroom stall) is much more believable, and forces us to feel the fear of our protagonist. 

I think it's dangerous to portray sexual assault in such a cartoonish way, and also disrespectul to the victims who'd want to play the game. 

THIS SCENE SPECIFICALLY felt like a fanfiction one, which is BAD for a supposedly deep horror game.

To wrap it up, I was a bit put off by the typos in the game, there's quite a lot, even for a demo.   

I quite liked Hyugo and Sol's relationship, but also the side characters, which play around with clichés (Brittney, my beloved)

And last, I can appreciate the art style, which makes this whole game a whole lot more appealing.